Marin County officials face housing zone protests

Residents across Marin are outraged by county plans to designate their neighborhoods as high-density affordable housing zones — at least based on the letters received by county officials regarding affordable housing.

A thick packet of protests has been compiled for review when the county Planning Commission takes another look at proposals for affordable housing zones in communities along Highway 101. Commissioners are expected to get an earful when they meet at 1 p.m. Monday in the Board of Supervisors' chambers at the Marin Civic Center in San Rafael.

Marinwood and Lucas Valley residents reject plans to rezone Grady Ranch as a site for 30 units per acre, a designation also proposed for sites in Marin City, Strawberry and the Silveira-St. Vincent's lands. Plans for 82 units on five acres at Marinwood Plaza stir contentious discord, with some residents so mad they seek the ouster of Supervisor Susan Adams, who has championed development there. The long knives remain sheathed in the Tamalpais Valley, but residents are no less incensed, assailing plans for more dwellings in a community reeling from traffic congestion.

At issue Monday is an environmental review of new county housing policies as well as merits of a housing program structured to meet goals set by the state and pressed by regional agencies that control transportation grants.

Letters and emails that have flooded into county planning offices in recent months — including petitions signed by hundreds of Tam Valley and Marinwood residents — make clear that rebellion is in the air.

Developer Thomas Monahan of Lucas Valley, a key foe of plans to develop the Grady Ranch next to his home, called county housing plans and related environmental documents an example of "poor planning blindly following bad state law," and said the results of rejecting housing quotas imposed by the state "are far less impactful than changing longstanding protections of the environment. ... Neighborhoods such as Tam Valley, Marinwood and Lucas Valley do not have adequate public transportation, public school capacities, sufficient public utility infrastructure or employment centers necessary to support large high-density affordable housing projects."

Furthermore, if the county continues to ignore residents and environmental values, "we shall be forced to take legal action," he warned.

The Marin Conservation League worried that "individual housing sites will not receive adequate environmental review or opportunities for public engagement in future years."

Here's what just a few others had to say in emails and letters:

 "This is ridiculous," said an unattributed email from a Marinwood-area resident. "I am not against affordable housing but not all in one ZIP code and certainly it is completely unacceptable that they do not pay property taxes. We all got our houses through hard work, we are not millionaires, just normal people who struggle every day to live where we are and support an excellent school district. All this will be lost when you authorize this and condemn those who live in this neighborhood. ... You have to be completely crazy to think any of this is a good idea. I am so disappointed in the leadership of this county."

 "This is a mistake for which the responsible parties need to be held accountable at the voting booth," said John Wallace of Mill Valley.

 "Tam Valley would be a bad place for this type of project," said Karen Berson. "We already have flooding and awful traffic."

 "Tam Valley/Almonte simply can't absorb any more people of any income level," said Erika Bodo. "We're all aware of the prediction that we'll be underwater in 20 years, so what would motivate anyone to build here? Greed, of course."

 "As a former design review board member for Larkspur, I am well aware of what the 30 units of housing per acre can look like ... the opposite of our open and natural setting!" said Ronette King, a resident of Los Ranchitos in San Rafael.

 "The current plans being forced on Marinwood are a joke," said Paul Brunell. "I'm sick of Marinwood residents like myself being called 'NIMBYs' and 'racists' for defending our neighborhood and schools."

 "The currently proposed zoning overlay ... directly conflicts with already existing regulations while also ignoring the community processes of past and present," said Riley Hurd III, attorney for Strawberry residents.

No development is up for approval, and no action is planned Monday, when commissioners are scheduled to continue the discussion to July 8.

The new zoning would allow clustering units in compact locations and would pave the way for project proposals.

The state contends Marin hasn't done a good job of providing housing for the poor, and officials fear the county will lose grant money if it doesn't clear the decks for projects that expand neighborhoods or create new ones.

"The Board of Supervisors directed staff to pursue housing element certification by identifying sites that can accommodate housing at 30 units an acre, with the potential for increased density and programmatic incentives to facilitate affordable housing development," the planning staff said in a comprehensive report that will be reviewed by the commission.